


The Curious Case of the Aquarist and the Vanishing Walrus

by radioactivesaltghoul



Series: radioactive vampire aus [3]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Aquarist Rey, Crack, F/M, Fluff, No Pregnancy, Safe to Read if You're Triggered by Pregnancy, Vampire Ben Solo, he's a vampire that turns into a walrus don't tell me that isn't hilarious, i have spent far too much time researching this fic, i know an unnecessary amount about walruses now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23337976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radioactivesaltghoul/pseuds/radioactivesaltghoul
Summary: Rey loves spending time in the walrus enclosure at the aquarium she works at.Ben is a vampire with an unusual ability.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: radioactive vampire aus [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548667
Comments: 96
Kudos: 106





	1. The Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> things have been A Lot recently for everyone and somehow [this shittycryptids post made me laugh so hard that i actually felt compelled to make a reylo au out of it](https://shittycryptids.tumblr.com/post/610989852531490816/a-vampire-that-transforms-into-a-walrus-instead-of).
> 
> do i have an outline for this? nope. will i finish it? i sure as hell hope so! but i'm not going to let its WIP status stop me from sharing this anyway.
> 
> the concept of a vampire that turns into a walrus sparked joy for me. i hope it sparks joy for you, too.

Rey Johnson loved her job at the Chandrila National Aquarium. After having grown up in a desert town called Jakku, she’d worked hard to earn a full-ride scholarship to study marine biology at the University of Chandrila, and she’d instantly fallen in love with all things oceanic. She’d taken to it like...well, like a fish to water.

As the newest aquarist on staff, most of Rey’s work involved cleaning animal tanks and enclosures. It wasn’t what she thought she’d be spending her time doing when she took Introduction to Marine Biology her freshman year of college, but she didn’t mind. It meant she got to spend more time with the animals she loved so much. She loved taking care of all of the sea creatures. Each penguin had its own personality, as did the otters and the sea lions. But her favorite, by far, was Chewie.

Chewie was the CNA’s resident walrus. And, in Rey’s opinion, he was the best creature in the whole aquarium.

Her coworkers didn’t understand why she loved Chewie so much, nor was it something she could explain. “Can _you_ explain why your favorite animal is a stingray?” she asked her coworker Poe after he caught her hanging out by the walrus enclosure, watching Chewie as the aquarium prepared to close up one night.

He shrugged. “Fair point. Hey, a bunch of us are going for a couple of drinks. You want in?”

Rey shook her head. Everyone she worked with was nice, but she still didn’t feel like she quite fit in with them. “I still have a lot more work to do before I can head home,” she told him. “You shouldn’t wait on me.”

“Are you sure?”

She flashed him her brightest I-don’t-want-to-talk-to-you-anymore smile. “Positive.”

Later on, as Rey was about to head home for the night, she did a double-take as she passed by Chewie’s enclosure.

Since when had there been _two_ walruses at the aquarium?

She stared at the pair of walruses laying side-by-side in the walrus habitat. Chewie didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that he now had a roommate, leading Rey to wonder if she was seeing things. It had been a long day, after all.

Nothing else was amiss, so she shook her head as if that would clear it and made a note to ask her boss why no one had bothered to tell her about the other walrus. If it was some sort of weird hazing ritual, she was going to Have Words with her coworkers.

Rey’s first stop when she arrived at work the next morning was Kaydel’s office. “Why didn’t you tell me we were getting another walrus?” she asked.

Kaydel frowned. “Who said we were getting another walrus?”

“No one told me,” Rey explained. “I saw another one sitting right next to Chewie when I finished cleaning up last night.”

Kaydel sighed. “Rey, I know we all like to have fun around here, but you can’t make jokes about the animals.”

“I’m not joking.”

Kaydel paused before responding. “I don’t want to dismiss your concerns, but are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”

Rey was completely certain that she’d been wide awake for the entire thing, but she knew a losing battle when she saw one. She’d just have to investigate herself. “I don’t know. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

She made a beeline for the walrus enclosure, dodging another attempt to draw her into conversation from Poe in the process. When she finally arrived at the viewing platform that the guests stood on to look into the above-water part of the enclosure, she only saw Chewie, lounging around on the rocks as usual. _What the hell?_ Rey thought. Maybe she had dreamt it up, after all. It _had_ been a long day yesterday.

The rest of the day went on as normal. Rey delighted in working with the animals, and she loved educating all of the aquarium’s guests about marine biology and the wonders of the ocean. She was the last one to finish up cleaning that evening as usual, and she decided to stop by the walrus enclosure out of habit. When she arrived, she did a double-take.

There were two walruses. _Again_.

She wasn’t going to make the same mistake she’d made yesterday. Rey pulled her phone out of her pocket, grimacing when she saw that the battery was at 2%. There was just enough power left to snap one photo before the phone died.

Rey plugged her phone in as soon as she got home, but she didn’t bother looking at the photo she’d taken. (Dinner time was sacred for her.) It wasn’t until the next morning that she looked at the photo she’d taken of the walruses the night before. Instead of providing proof that there had been another walrus, it left her even more confused.

_There was no other walrus in the photo._

Rey didn’t bother trying to ask Kaydel about it this time. On her lunch break, she frantically researched psychiatrists in the area, taking a note to call and ask for an intake appointment as soon as she had more privacy. She wasn’t an expert on mental health, but she knew it was a problem when you started to hallucinate extra walruses at work.

For the first time since starting work at the aquarium, the end of the day couldn’t come fast enough. She breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the aquarium’s closing hour arrived, only to walk by Chewie’s enclosure and see a guest lingering on the viewing platform. _Didn’t you hear the announcements that we closed for the night?_ she wanted to scream.

Instead, she put on her best customer service voice and said, “Excuse me, sir. We’re closed now.”

The guest turned around to look at her. She could have sworn she heard him whisper, “It’s you,” but Chewie decided to let out a grunt at that exact moment, so it was impossible to tell what words passed the guest’s lips.

And what nice lips they were, Rey thought. As was everything else about his appearance. He was tall, broad, and all-around gorgeous. She didn’t make a habit of checking out the aquarium guests, but then again, they didn’t usually look like this.

She cleared her throat. “Sir?” she tried again. “You need to leave now. The aquarium is closed.”

“Do you think he’s lonely?”

The question caught her off-guard. “Pardon?”

“The walrus. Chewie. Do you think he’s lonely?”

What a strange question. “The staff spend plenty of time with the animals here,” she explained. “There are always aquarists on staff here, even when the aquarium is closed to the public. Which it is right now.”

“But is he lonely?”

He seemed oddly fixated on the question that it flustered Rey into answering honestly. “I’m not sure,” she confessed. “I always make sure to check in on him every day that I’m here. Walruses are social creatures, but we just have Chewie right now.” She wasn’t going to bring up the phantom walrus unprompted, even if she _did_ feel compelled into spilling her guts to this man.

“And you?”

“Me what?”

“Are you lonely?”

The answer on the tip of her tongue was _No, of course not, I have a very active and fulfilling social life._ What came out of her mouth, however, was “Yes, I am.” Then: “Are you?”

The man blinked, clearly surprised. He turned away, turning the intensity of his gaze onto Chewie. Rey barely held in a sigh of relief. Whoever the hell this guy was, he was _intense._ “You’re not alone,” he said quietly.

She wasn’t certain if he was talking to her or the walrus. “Neither are you,” she said before she could stop herself. “I appreciate that you’re so invested in Chewie’s well-being, but you really need to leave, sir. The aquarium is now closed to guests.”

He turned back to her. “My sincerest apologies,” he murmured. “I apologize for taking up so much of your time. I’ll see you later, Rey.”

It wasn’t until she was in the break room taking off her uniform that she realized that her nametag had been sitting in her pocket since the aquarium closed to the general public.

How the hell had he known her name?


	2. The Crush

Ben had only been in Hanna City for a week and he’d already screwed up.

See, the thing was, he was not exactly a people person, but he lacked the ability to survive on anything other than human blood, which meant he was forced to be where the people were. He’d learned the hard way that there was no such thing as a “vegetarian” vampire, no matter what the media would have you believe.

Trust him. He’d tried.

He was entering his second decade of vampirism and his first time returning to Hanna City since his human childhood. In the years since he’d been gone, the city had grown so much that he barely recognized it. One of the few things he’d gravitated towards when he initially arrived was the Chandrila National Aquarium, which held most of the few fond memories he had from his childhood.

Well, okay, that was half of the reason. The other half was that there was no other convenient place in Hanna City to hang out in walrus form, which was surprisingly comfortable, once he’d gotten used to it.

When Ben had initially Turned, he’d been horrified to learn that vampires took the form of a walrus instead of a bat. He’d willingly become a vampire, fantasizing about how great it would be to take to the skies as a bat. Nobody had bothered to inform him that that particular part of the vampire legends was wrong…

But then again, he hadn’t asked.

The aquarium was the perfect place to hide out. Getting past security wasn’t an issue; Ben didn’t show up on mirrors or cameras. There were aquarium staff around after hours, but most of them kept an eye on the animals using webcams. Even if he was in the hulking form of a 4,000-pound pinniped, no security camera would catch sight of him, and there was plenty of space in Chewie’s enclosure.

The variable that had never factored into Ben’s plan was the cute walrus-loving aquarist.

His initial reaction upon seeing that a member of staff was looking straight at him was one of panic that he’d have to do, uh, _vampire things_ to get rid of her. When she didn’t immediately raise some sort of alarm, he figured that he was safe for the moment. 

As soon as night had fallen the next day, he’d entered the aquarium as a guest, doing his best to blend in with the rest of the guests while looking for the aquarist. The benefit of Hanna City being so far north was that sunset was early this time of year, so he was able to sneak in an hour before the museum closed for the night.

Ben wasn’t exactly built for sneaking around, whether in human form or walrus, but over the years he’d mastered the art of lurking in the shadows. (It was a necessary skill for vampires to know, but he’d been good at it as a human as well.) Luck was on Ben’s side tonight; the aquarium was busy enough that he didn’t look completely out-of-place wandering around.

In the end, it didn’t take too long to find her talking to a tour group about the pinnipeds living at the aquarium. He hung back, grateful that his vampire powers included superhuman hearing and vision.

“Who can tell me what a pinniped is?” the aquarist asked the group. She paused, listening for guesses from the crowd. Ben was too focused on the aquarist— _Rey_ , her nametag read—to bother listening to anyone else.

“That’s correct,” Rey said, smiling at the crowd. “A pinniped is a meat-eating fin-footed marine animal. Can anyone tell me what pinnipeds we have here at the Chandrila National Aquarium?”

“Seals!”

“Sea lions!”

“A walrus!”

Rey beamed at the crowd. It was obvious to Ben that she loved talking about the animals she worked with.

Thoughts like that were dangerous. They made him wonder if he should reveal himself as a vampire-walrus to her.

After the museum closed, Ben hid himself from the staff as they got ready to go home for the night before making his way back into Chewie’s enclosure. It felt good to be back in the water. It was almost like he wasn’t even in a city anymore.

He’d miscalculated, however. Apparently, Rey was an incredibly dedicated employee who made it a personal mission to check in on the walrus in her care before she left for the night, because he heard a commotion and looked up just in time to see her snap a picture of him and Chewie with her phone.

_Shit, shit, shit._

Ben wasn’t worried about having photographic evidence of his being a walrus—vampires didn’t show up on camera, after all—but he hated the idea of making Rey doubt her sanity over a walrus that only she could see. She practically ran out of there as soon as she took the photo, leaving him scrambling for a way to salvage the situation.

He’d just have to talk to her. About what, he wasn’t sure, but he loved the way she cared so much about Chewie, and he didn’t want to do anything to scare her away.

* * *

In retrospect, the conversation went about as well as he should have expected it to.

That was to say: horrendously awkward, and he walked away regretting every single word he’d said.

* * *

Ben avoided the aquarium for as long as he could after that.

He managed three days.

Not being a people person in Hanna City was torture. Oh, sure, it was easy enough to find a victim to prey on, but Ben wasn’t in this for the hunt. No, he wanted to have a chance to stretch his fins, and the only place he could safely do that anywhere near here was the aquarium.

He’d just have to be more careful, that was all.

And it worked. For two whole days. They must have been Rey’s days off from work, because when Ben came back the next night, there she was again. Only this time, he didn’t know she was there until she was climbing into Chewie’s enclosure with walrus cleaning supplies.

Ben froze. Chewie was underwater at the moment, leaving him alone on the enclosure’s rocky parts. As long as the real walrus stayed out-of-the-way, maybe he could get through this without having to reveal himself.

He didn’t recognize the song she was humming as she approached, but he was still charmed by her off-tune humming. “Good evening, Chew—” She stopped short as she got within arm’s length of him. “You’re not Chewie,” she said slowly.

_Fuck._

“You’re that other walrus. The one I’ve been hallucinating.”

That wasn’t any better. Ben was frozen with indecision. Should he transform back into human form and explain the whole situation to her? Or would it be better to simply let her continue to think she was hallucinating a two-ton mammal? The best case scenario was that she would walk away and not alert any other lingering aquarium staff members of the phantom creature in Chewie’s enclosure.

Rey’s next actions, however, threw him for a loop.

She sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I’ve been spending too much time here.” She sounded so sad that Ben couldn’t help himself, shuffling forward as if to comfort her. Now that she was here and not running away screaming at the phantom walrus, he wanted to listen to her speak. Maybe she’d talk to him as if he could respond—and he _could_ , if he wanted to reveal his true self to her.

_If._

Rey stared at him for so long that he began to panic. Was it obvious that he wasn’t a real walrus? Other walruses seemed to understand that he wasn’t exactly like them, but how many humans could distinguish one walrus from another?

Or maybe she changed her mind and she was going to look for one of her coworkers to verify that she really was the only one who could see him.

Ben’s heart began to beat unnaturally fast for a walrus as the panic began to overtake him. He had to make a decision, and fast.

He lumbered closer to where Rey was watching him, a faraway look in her eyes. She jumped as she realized he was approaching, but she didn’t immediately back away. That was promising, at least.

Then again, she probably assumed that a hallucination couldn’t hurt her.

Ben made eye contact as best as he could in this form, then inhaled deeply. On the exhale, he focused, running through the instinctive transformation between hulking pinniped and hulking human.

He had no reference for what the transformation looked like—after all, he couldn’t see his own reflection, nor could he film himself—so he had no idea what to expect when he opened his once again human eyes.

Rey was staring blankly at him, clearly in shock.

_Double shit._

Ben cleared his throat. “Uh, hi—”

Rey screamed.


	3. The Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> took me until halfway through this fic to find them, but the indiannapolis zoo's youtube page has a couple of [walrus training videos](https://youtu.be/jI9tSvkuVQQ) and [they're surprisingly cute](https://youtu.be/mSCDLtXH75Q)!

Nothing could have prepared Rey for the sight of her hallucination turning from a walrus into the guest who she could only describe as “intense.”

It took her a minute to realize that she was the one who was screaming, at which point she clamped a hand over her mouth and frantically looked behind her, praying that none of her coworkers were going to come investigate.

It then took her another minute to tune into what the walrus man was saying. “...I’m so sorry, please don’t scream again, I didn’t mean to scare you, I—”

“Who _the fuck_ are you?” she snapped. Then, arguably the more important question at the moment: “ _What_ are you?”

He sighed. “I didn’t want you to find out this way. I’m doing this all wrong.”

“That’s not what I asked.” Rey may have felt a strange pull to spill all her secrets to this stranger, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to let him get away without answering her questions.

He shifted, like he was about to step closer to her, but Rey was having none of it. She held up the wooden broom she used to clean Chewie’s enclosure, handle first.

The man froze, eyes widening. For someone who apparently had the ability to turn into one of nature’s biggest sea mammals, he sure seemed scared of a wooden stick. “I promise I mean you no harm,” he said. He was so still that Rey wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

This kept getting weirder and weirder.

“You—are—a—hallucination,” she said, gritting her teeth.

“I’m not,” he said. “I just—look, I promise I’ll explain everything, but can we go somewhere else? You may want to sit down for this.”

“Try me,” she snapped.

He sighed. “Hi,” he said, giving an awkward one-handed wave. “My name’s Ben. I’m a vampire.”

* * *

Ben had never told someone about his true nature before. He hadn’t been close enough—hadn’t _wanted_ to be close enough—to do so before he’d stumbled across the woman of his dreams.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t go as smoothly as he would have liked.

“You’re a what?” Rey asked, gawking at him. She was still holding the wooden broom high enough that it wouldn’t have taken too much effort to plunge into Ben’s chest. He wasn’t sure if it was sharp enough to stake him, but he wasn’t certain he wanted to push his luck with this particular part of the legend.

“I’m a vampire,” he repeated. “You know, like Dracula?”

She frowned. Great, now he was distracted by how cute her frown was instead of trying to casually convince her to lower the makeshift weapon. “What do vampires have to do with walruses?”

Here it was. The moment of truth. “Would you believe me if I told you that vampires turn into walruses instead of bats?”

“No.”

He held back a sigh. “What else could explain what you just saw?” he pointed out.

“I’m not entirely certain I saw anything,” she said.

Okay then. He’d have to show her again. “Watch.” He stepped back, closed his eyes, and allowed himself to transform back into pinniped form. _See?_ he wanted to ask. Walruses were capable of making a number of different noises, but none of them translated to human speech. He’d have to transform back to continue this conversation. Transforming back into a human for the second time in the space of five minutes left him a little dizzy. Huh. That was new.

“I don’t know how else you think this can be explained,” he said, gesturing at himself. “It’s not like—”

It was at that very moment that Chewie decided to join the party, climbing up out of the water to lumber over to Rey and Ben. They both jumped, some of the tension dissolving as the real walrus approached.

Rey shot a look at Ben. “If you really aren’t a hallucination, don’t go anywhere,” she told him. “I still have a lot of questions for you, but you’re not getting in the way of Chewie’s snacktime.”

Ben held up his hands in surrender. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

* * *

The so-called vampire—Ben—hovered awkwardly as Rey went through her usual evening walrus care routine with Chewie. She couldn’t stop herself from sneaking a look at him every so often. It wasn’t exactly subtle, but he seemed so enraptured in watching her interact with the walrus that she didn’t think he minded.

She had about a million questions and doubts about his claim of being “a vampire who turns into a walrus,” but the more she thought about it, the more she bought it. What else could explain his ability to alter his shape between humanoid and pinniped?

It also explained why he didn’t show up on camera, if Rey recalled vampire lore correctly.

That being said, it _didn’t_ explain what the hell he was doing hanging around the Chandrila National Aquarium. Or why he knew her name, although if he’d been spending a lot of time at the aquarium lately, it was possible he’d just picked it up.

_Oh lord,_ Rey thought as something occurred to her. _I hope this guy hasn’t been stalking me._ He gave off that vibe, although maybe that was just the vampire thing.

She took her time making sure Chewie was happy, fed, and clean before she finally stood up to face Ben again. She inhaled, steeling herself for whatever the hell they were about to discuss. “Okay,” she said slowly. “You wanted to talk. Let’s talk.”

Ben had been giving Chewie what she could only describe as a _fond_ look, but his attention jumped to Rey the second she opened her mouth. “Here?” he asked. She tried to see if she could see fangs from where she stood, but she was too far. She’d have to get closer to him, but...well, was it safe?

_Then again,_ her inner monologue reminded her. _You feed a 3,000-lb walrus out of your hand every day._ Besides, now that the initial shock had settled, she was curious about him. Hopefully he’d be willing to answer the million questions she had running through her brain.

“No,” she said, gathering up her walrus care tools. “You’re not supposed to be here right now, and I don’t feel like answering awkward questions from my coworkers.”

“They won’t catch me on camera,” he replied, “as you no doubt saw for yourself.”

“Thanks for making me doubt my sanity, by the way,” she groused.

“For what it’s worth, it was never my intent,” he said, following her out of Chewie’s enclosure. “I wasn’t trying to cause trouble. This just seemed like the best place for a walrus to hang out around here.”

She wanted to roll her eyes, but he sounded so earnest that she found herself asking, “Why are you in Hanna City if you just want to hang out with walruses?”

“I, uh.” He stopped short, looking at the ground. “You know how vampires work, don’t you?”

It took Rey a minute to understand. She couldn’t keep the revulsion from her expression. “You’re telling me you’re here to drink blood? _My_ blood?”

“I don’t kill anyone,” he was quick to reassure her. “I only take enough to survive, and I only drink from healthy people who can handle losing the blood. I promise.”

“Okay,” she replied, deciding to come back to that topic later. “So why here? Why a walrus?”

The answer was unexpected and, if she was being honest, _charming_. “It’s a surprisingly comfortable form to be in,” he told her.

She knew she was gawking at him by now, but she wasn’t sure how else to respond. This wasn’t exactly the type of scenario she’d imagined while fantasizing about having a romcom-style meet-cute.

He was gawking, too. “You’re not screaming,” he pointed out. “And you’re not running away.”

She nodded. “I have so many questions before I do any of that.”

He seemed to catch the levity in her tone, because he smiled. “Ask away,” he said. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know about me, Rey.”

* * *

_How to Not Act Like a Desperate Idiot 101_ said: Maintain some aura of mystery. Don’t infodump on the target of your affections. Keep them guessing.

Ben did none of those things as he answered all of Rey’s questions while he walked her to the nearest subway station.

“Why did you become a vampire?”

“It seemed like a good opportunity at the time.”

“Do you regret it?”

“I’m still not sure, to be honest.”

“Why a walrus?”

He couldn’t keep the smile from his face. “You know, I’ve never figured that out,” he admitted. “I assumed I was going to be able to fly when I Turned. Instead, I can swim.”

“I suppose it makes sense, in a way,” Rey said. When he gave her a confused look, she clarified, “Tusks look like fangs, don’t they? They’re completely different things, of course, but I can see where the visual confusion comes from.”

He’d never thought about it like that before. “You might be right,” he said. “It didn’t exactly come with an instructions manual. The person who Turned me didn’t stick around to do more than basic ‘Vampire Life Skills 101’ before disappearing. I’ve been on my own since.”

Rey stopped short. “You asked me if I was lonely.”

He remembered that conversation, although he wasn’t sure where she was going with it. “And?” he replied softly, afraid to scare her off.

“And when I asked if you were, you never answered me,” she said, taking a step closer to him.

“In my defense, you were trying to kick me out of the aquarium.”

She grinned at that. Something in Ben’s dead heart sparked at knowing he’d made her smile. “And yet you sneaked back in anyway later on.”

“I did.”

She started walking again. “I’m glad you did,” she admitted. “You scared the shit out of me earlier, but I’m relieved to know that I haven’t been hallucinating animals. I’ve just been dealing with a walrus-vampire.”

He would have blushed, if he’d been physically capable of doing so. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t intend for it to go that way.”

“Oh? So you were planning on coming clean this whole time?”

Ben scrambled for a reasonable explanation until he caught a look at her expression and realized she was teasing him. “I wouldn’t have been able to keep up the ruse, even if I’d wanted to,” he told her.

An awkward pause fell between them as they approached the entrance to the subway station. He wasn’t ready for the conversation to end, but he didn’t dare follow her. He’d already made a mess of things; he didn’t need to add ‘stalking’ to that list as well.

“Do vampires carry cell phones?”

The non sequitur caught him by surprise. “Excuse me?”

“Cell phones. Do vampires use those? Or do you only use carrier pigeons because you’re all old?”

He still didn’t understand the point of the question. “I suppose some vampires do, but I have no need for a cell phone. I’d have to worry about it getting waterlogged, anyway.” His clothes transformed when he did—which was fortunate, because the only thing that could have made the revelation of his powers to Rey worse was if he’d transformed from a walrus into a naked man—but he still ended up soaked half the time.

“That’s a shame,” Rey said, smiling at him.

“Why?”

“I was going to give you my number, but I guess you’ll just have to sneak back into the aquarium.”

Ben couldn’t believe his ears. “You want to see me again?” If his heart could still beat, he knew it would be pounding a mile a minute right now.

“Of course I do,” she said. “After all, who else is going to teach me the ways of the walrus?”


	4. Epilogue

_Two years later_

Every once in a while, Ben tried to figure out how his life—well, okay, his afterlife—had led him to Rey.

He realized one night that he’d almost started thinking like a human again while he was hanging out in the aquarium after hours, waiting for Rey to finish up her after-hours tasks. Specifically, he caught himself thinking about how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

Ben had even gone so far as to buy her a simple, no-frills engagement ring. (Being a vampire limited his available work hours, but he made a decent enough wage as an under-the-table security guard that he could afford to save up for a ring and still pay his half of the rent.) He’d taken to carrying it around in his pocket as he angsted over whether or not he should propose. The biggest roadblock was his immortality versus her mortality. He hated the idea that she’d grow to resent him as she aged and he didn’t.

It didn’t even take Rey a week to ask if vampires could drink beer, which turned out to be her way of asking him on a date. Within six months, they decided to move in together after finding a basement apartment with fully blacked-out windows in one of the rooms so that Ben could safely sleep during the day. Initially, he’d been worried that Rey wouldn’t get enough sunlight, but she reassured him that she got plenty of sun exposure working with the animals in outdoor exhibits at the aquarium.

He was fairly certain that she’d been dropping hints lately that she wanted this to be a life-long thing. Casual comments about how she didn’t have a problem with the blood-drinking now that she knew he didn’t kill people, or about how she didn’t have any family she had to worry about leaving behind.

And, of course, there were the walrus questions.

Rey had always been fascinated by the fact that he had the ability to shift into pinniped form, and she’d never held back any of her questions about it. Lately, however, they’d taken a turn.

“What do you think I’d look like as a walrus?” she asked one night as he walked her home from the aquarium.

Ben frowned. “Pardon?”

“Well, you’re a big human, so it makes sense that you’re just a big walrus,” she explained. “But what about me? Would I be an Atlantic walrus, or a Pacific walrus? Do vampires have subspecies like walruses do?”

He wasn’t sure where exactly she was going with this question. “I’m...not sure.”

“Hmm,” she replied noncommittally.

“Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason,” she said in a way that implied that there definitely was a reason, she just didn’t want to tell him.

Weird, but then again, Rey was weird all over and he loved her for it.

Ben thought that the walrus conversation was over, but Rey brought it up again last on that night as they were curled up on the couch together.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

“Does what hurt?”

“Turning.”

“Into a walrus? No, not at all.”

She shook her head. “No, I mean, when you Turned into a vampire.”

“Oh.” He sat up, turning so that he could see her expression. “Well, I did have to die in order for it to happen.” He paused before adding, “Why do you ask?”

Rey didn’t respond immediately. “I love you,” she said finally. “And the thing is, I want to spend the rest of my life with you if you’ll have me.”

Was she...was she _proposing_ to him? This didn’t sound like any proposal speech he’d read online.

“But,” she continued, “the rest of my life and the rest of your life are two very different things.”

He was still as a statue, debating the most appropriate reaction. _Yes, I’ll turn you into a vampire so that we can spend the rest of eternity together_ sounded a little desperate, even if that was what he was thinking.

Rey was silent, apparently waiting for a response. “Ben?” she asked, sounding worried.

“I want the same thing,” he admitted. “To spend the rest of my life with you, I mean. I even—” He rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out the ring. She gasped when she realized what it was. “I haven’t figured out how to ask you yet, which...I suppose I just did.”

There were tears in her eyes now. “Ben,” she whispered, throwing her arms around him. “Yes. _Yes._ Of course I’ll become your vampire wife.”

Well. That solved _that_ problem, he supposed.

* * *

Rey hadn’t been entirely certain that Ben would react well to learning that she wanted him to Turn her. She’d never been so relieved when he pulled out that ring.

Neither she nor Ben saw the need to have an official wedding ceremony. Given that Ben didn’t even officially exist, it would have been difficult to handle the paperwork. The fact that neither of them had any family or close friends who they would have wanted at a wedding sealed the deal. “It’s enough for me to know that we’ll be together forever,” she’d told him. “But let’s get matching rings anyway.” She didn’t want to _hide_ the fact that she was married, after all.

“We’re going to have to leave Chandrila for a while,” he warned her. “I mean, you’ll need to fake your own death at some point before people realize you aren’t aging anyway, but it would be good to get out of a densely populated urban center while you’re still new to the whole vampire thing.”

Rey loved her job, and she had to admit that her coworkers were pretty great, too. She wasn’t in any huge rush to leave, but she was ready to start her afterlife with Ben immediately. “So when should we schedule this?” she asked, internally cringing when she realized it sounded like she was scheduling a surgery.

Which she was, in a way.

They nailed down a timeline, then Rey put in a request for a sabbatical from work. “My fiance and I are going to travel around Alaska for a little while after we get married,” she told Kaydel. “I’ll finally get to observe some of these animals in the wild.”

“That’s wonderful, Rey,” Kaydel said, beaming as she signed off on Rey’s sabbatical request. “Congratulations on your wedding.”

Rey’s coworkers were equally supportive of her plan. “Hit me up if you ever miss the animals here and want to FaceTime them,” Poe told her. She laughed and thanked him. It was a rather sweet gesture, after all.

The night they were scheduled to Turn her, Ben asked her if she was _really_ certain. “It’s perfectly normal to get cold feet at a normal wedding,” he said. He was trying (and failing) to sound completely chill about it, and Rey fell in love with him all over again at how much he wanted her to know he respected any decision she made about the whole deal.

“I’m sure,” she told him, punctuating the statement with a kiss. “Let’s do this.”

* * *

Rey took to vampirism like a duck to water. Ben’s memories of his first few months as a vampire were a bit hazy, but he didn’t think he’d gone through it as smoothly as she had. “I feel great,” she said the first night after he Turned her. “I mean, I’ve never been so thirsty in my life, but other than that, everything’s great.”

He probably shouldn’t have been so surprised. Rey excelled at everything she did.

“So what next?” she asked after her first successful, kill-free meal. “When do I get to become a walrus?”

Ben kissed her, feeling like his heart had never been so light before. “We go to Alaska, like we said.”

They bought a shitty old van and drove up the Canadian west coast into Alaska. Neither of them had to worry about freezing to death, which gave them a lot of freedom with their travel plans. Still, they couldn’t go anywhere too remote. They needed human blood, of course.

Nothing could have prepared him for the sight of Rey’s face as she saw walruses in the wild for the first time. “Ben,” she whispered, tears in her eyes. “They’re _beautiful._ ”

His heart could barely contain his love for this woman. “So are you,” he reminded her. “Now come on. Let me show you the ways of the walrus.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alternate ending, if anyone's up for it: rey becomes [a were-whale](https://shittycryptids.tumblr.com/post/157965977516/the-were-whale). bless the mod(s) of the shittycryptids tumblr blog.

**Author's Note:**

> things i googled while writing this:
> 
> \- are walruses social creatures  
> \- what noise does a walrus make  
> \- what’s the aquarium equivalent of a zookeeper  
> \- how much does an average walrus weigh  
> \- what class of animal is a walrus  
> \- how do aquarists take care of walruses (note: there was no answer for this)  
> \- walrus heart rate (no answer for this, either)  
> \- walrus subspecies
> 
> i am rarely on social media at the moment, but you can find me on [tumblr](https://radioactivesaltghoul.tumblr.com), [twitter](https://twitter.com/r_saltghoul), and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/radioactivesaltghoul).


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